


She Makes an Impression

by KayMakesItQueer



Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Early Days in Jackson, Ellie Swears A Lot, F/F, Guitar Lessons with Joel, Meet-Cute but not at all, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, TLOU2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:54:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26169769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KayMakesItQueer/pseuds/KayMakesItQueer
Summary: Ellie's always been good at first impressions, right? A few months into living in Jackson, Ellie tells Joel about meeting the intense dark-haired girl at the supply shop. It goes smoothly.
Relationships: Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 39





	She Makes an Impression

They've lived in Jackson for several weeks now. Ellie's adjusting to the daily rhythms of life here. She still carries her pocket knife everywhere, and she avoids larger crowds, but she turns her back to exits. She cranks up the volume on her cassette player when she's alone in her room, pocket knife several feet away, drawing wildlife from the art book Joel gave her. She finds a peace in the quiet. For a little while.

Ellie likes feeling active and useful, so she makes herself useful. She accepts shifts everywhere and anywhere as she figures out what she likes. She's never had so much freedom. Not this kind. Fuck the farming rotation though. It doesn't take her long to realize she doesn't like cleaning up horse shit for hours. She wants to patrol, but Maria says she's not old enough. Bullshit, she's probably killed more infected—and uh, people—than half the patrollers now.

Joel often takes her out hunting and scouting, helping her settle more into town. They get to know every nook and cranny of the surrounding area, and he teaches her things they never had time for on the road. Things can get awkward between them, but it helps when they're focused on something other than each other. 

Despite being so active, she still ducks away after exchanging the shortest possible pleasantries with the townspeople. Boston wasn't like this. The military academies weren't like this. It's unnerving, and she still avoids kids her age. Jackson hasn't shaken her of that habit, and she doesn't want to ruin her chances here by punching some guy for trying to steal her shit. So, she keeps her distance. Until yesterday.

She's sitting on the porch with Joel, tapping her fingers against the guitar, reflecting on the strange conversation she had with the dark haired girl she's seen seemingly everywhere.

"You gon' start playing or we sticking wood tapping tonight?" Joel's hair is getting longer, his beard scruffier. He gives her a patient look, and the awkwardness between them isn't heavy tonight.

"I had a weird interaction yesterday," she strums the guitar, placing her fingers against the frets and testing out a G chord. It doesn't sound right.

He grunts, and she takes it as a sign to continue. Talking about it is hard and weird, but she wants to.

See, she knows how to talk to people her age. She's had friends, however short liv--uh, well. Riley and Sam at least liked her. It's just that the girl from the other day is weirdly fucking intense, and it's been awhile, okay? And Joel isn't exactly a talker.

Joel had asked her to run the supplies to the shop, and Ellie hadn't expected her typical brushoffs and clipped responses not to work. She went through her customary pleasantries, listed off the supplies she was handing over, and where she'd gotten them.

She hadn't anticipated all the damn personal questions. Where's she from? How long has she been here? How does she like it? Why was she even outside the walls—how cool! Her name's Ellie, right?

It was rapid fire, and Ellie was ill equipped for the sudden barrage. After the eighth question the intense girl fired off, Ellie none too subtly bolted.

Ellie flinches as she recalls the strange interaction, and Joel smiles the tiniest smile under all that scruff.

"Watch it, old man. I've seen you duck away from that blonde from the stables." His smile vanishes quickly, and he adjusts her fingers once again after she unsuccessfully plays in A minor. It sounds right the second time. She stares down at her fingers, committing the position to memory.

After bolting from the shop, Ellie had thought that was the last of it. She spent the next hour circuit training at the park, running through exercises she learned at military prep. She appreciated the peace, but she knew how quickly things could change. She couldn't become soft.

Hopping off the bar, she was startled when she landed poorly and heard a grunt not her own.

The girl, the dark haired girl, must have caught up to her and...what? Snuck up on her? How had Ellie not heard her? Either way, they ended up tangled together in a mess of limbs.

In her haste to get out of this awkward ass situation, Ellie made it worse. She elbowed the girl in the face. Right in the damn eye. She hadn't even gotten the girl's name before giving her a shiner.

Joel doesn't hide his laugh now, and Ellie pointedly ignores him as she continues.

The girl had yelped but gotten herself sorted and standing before Ellie. She offered a hand, which Ellie took, and her name. _Dina._

Ellie offered her own name in return. She should have offered the girl an icepack. Walked her to the clinic, maybe. Something. Instead, unprompted, she blurted out all the answers to the questions the girl, Dina, had asked at the shop.

Entirely baffled by her own reaction, Ellie fled in the opposite direction. Again. The sound of a laugh followed her as she retreated to the safety of her home.

By the end of her recollection, Ellie has successfully played a G chord in an A minor. She immediately messes up again after taking her hands off the frets for a moment.

"You always been good at making impressions," Joel says after a long moment filled only with the sounds of Ellie adjusting her fingers, trying to make the right sounds come out of the guitar again.

"Not good ones," she mumbles, thinking of some of her first meetings. Many began with violence. Even meeting Joel included trying to stab him.

"Only time'll tell," he shrugs, and that settles the matter for the night. He leans over to correct her hand when she huffs.

\--

A week later, Ellie and Dina are inseparable. She'll never admit the old man was right. His head is big enough.

**Author's Note:**

> I was doing a writing exercise about summarizing versus writing dialogue. I played around with present vs past tense too, and this popped out.  
> I haven't stopped thinking about this game since it came out. Ellie's "attack first, greet later" approach to meeting folks always seems to work for her, and I can't imagine it was any different with Dina.


End file.
